Major stock indexes are bouncing back Tuesday, showing their resilience yet again after yesterday’s big selloff.

One analyst went as far as describing the stock market as “Mamba-esque,” playing off the nickname for 35-year-old NBA star and future Hall-of-Famer Kobe Bryant.

The real question, though, is which Mamba is Parker using as his baseline?

Is Parker talking about a straight-out-of-high-school Bryant, or even a 30-year old Bryant? Because comparing the stock market to a 34-year-old Bryant — who just blew out his Achilles tendon and may never play another minute of professional basketball — could be dangerous.

“He is known for his relentlessness,” Adam Parker, chief equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a client note on Monday. “The magnitude and duration of the recent market rally are kind of Mamba-esque.”

There is a logic to Parker’s reasoning. Including yesterday’s 265-point drop, the Dow has only had five triple-digit-point declines this year. Whenever the market faces a bit of turmoil, it finds a way to bounce back, just like Bryant has throughout his illustrious career.

Consider how the market rebounded following this year’s big selloffs:

February 4, 2013 — Dow fell 129 points, one day after finishing above 14000 for the first time since October 2007. The blue-chip average rose 99 points the very next day and by Feb. 12, it had recovered all of that triple-digit decline.

February 20, 2013 — Dow dropped 108 points after the Fed showed increasing unease about its efforts to support the economy. Two days later it rebounded 119 points and it almost recovered all of the Feb. 20 decline.

February 25, 2013 — Dow slumped 216 points amid concerns about Italy’s inconclusive election results. The market recovered those losses in two days, hit record levels one week later and continued marching higher for much of March and early April.

April 3, 2013 — Dow declined 111 points after a pair of disappointing economic reports stoked worries about the recovery. Six days later, the index had recovered all of those losses.

April 15, 2013 – Dow slumped 265 points amid steep drops in gold and other commodity prices. Today, the Dow recovered much of those losses, rising as much as 151 points.

That resilience is partly why Parker, who had been the most bearish strategist on Wall Street, is getting even more bullish by the day. Last month he boosted his S&P 500 price target to 1600.

“The truth is that we are starting to think our year-end target is too low — already,” he said on Monday.

On an even longer-term time horizon, the market’s steadiness is even more prevalent. Parker points out the S&P 500 has risen in nine out of the past 10 months, increasing 17% throughout the streak. In the past 50 years, this rally falls in the upper echelon of 10-month rallies, but it’s not the biggest.

“There have been 139 out of the 582 10-month periods where the market rally was larger, meaning that while this has been a big rally, it has been marked more by its steadiness and relentlessness than its sheer magnitude,” Parker says.

Steadiness and relentlessness are certainly adjectives that have been used to describe Bryant throughout his 17-year NBA career. He’s a five-time champion who has consistently been among the top scorers every season and has repeatedly led his Lakers squad deep into the postseason.

Few would dare to question Bryant’s drive at any age, even as that Achilles keeps him on the sidelines, and could even force his retirement.

Just like Bryant before the injury when he could do little wrong, few are predicting a sudden decline in the stock market. The Fed is still firing on all cylinders, the economy is gradually getting better (evidenced by today’s stronger-than-expected housing data) and investors have become more immune to shocks coming out of Europe.

But if yesterday’s drop ends up being the capital equivalent of a blown Achilles on a 35-year-old player, Parker may end up wishing he’d chosen LeBron James or Kevin Durant for his analogy instead of Byrant.

Maybe even Carmelo Anthony. Just sayin’.

–Paul Vigna contributed to this report.

UPDATE: A previous version of this post said Kobe is 35 years old. He’s actually 34, and will turn 35 in August. The post has been corrected.